Week in Review: Pentobarbital To Become New Lethal Injection Drug In Missouri

Why is it so difficult to execute prisoners in the state of Missouri?

The Missouri Department of Corrections is switching to a new lethal injection drug, less than two weeks after Governor Jay Nixon halted executions until a replacement for Propofol was found. The corrections department says in a news release that it will now use pentobarbital. The Death Penalty Information Center says 13 states use that drug for executions. We’ve always known there can be a lot of legal appeals on death row inmates, but since when did it become a problem in Missouri that you couldn’t execute prisoners because of the drug that was being used?